


Chapped Lips and Tigers

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Daria (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-20
Updated: 2007-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 04:17:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1631117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for boundbyspells</p>
    </blockquote>





	Chapped Lips and Tigers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for boundbyspells

 

 

"I'm sorry!"   
Her voice echoed in the halls of Lawndale High, off the glossy walls, the scuffed floor, the lockers.   
Daria was alone. And any other time but now, that would have been fan-freaking-tastic. During dinner, when she would stare into her plate with silent disdain as Quinn went on about how positively adorable that new hat she'd bought at the mall would go with her pink shirt and jeans, during class, when she was surrounded by brainless flunkies who would cast wall-eyed stares at nothing at all. But not now. Not after she'd just let her tongue slip and made the confession.  
She'd kissed Tom.   
She'd kissed Tom.  
She'd kissed Tom.  
But it wasn't like she'd expected Jane to stick around after she'd told her. After all, Daria didn't need to read any of the vapid teen magazines that occupied every flat surface in Quinn's bedroom to realize that kissing your best friend's boyfriend was enough to, in an instant, transform you from friend to public enemy No. 1.   
'It's not like I enjoyed it...' she told herself over and over again.'His lips were chapped and his car smelled like cabbage and senior discount day at the Sizzler.'  
But she'd done it a second time. Leaned foward and kissed him. Just like that. She wasn't even sure why. Maybe she was trying to double check to see if his lips were really that chapped? Trying to take her mind off of the cabbage-and-senior-citizen-buffet smell?   
But it was no use. Maybe she had enjoyed it.   
What a thought. What a horrible, terrifying thought.

Of course, this was all made worse by having to be in school all day. She'd walked there without Jane that morning, and had been avoiding her ever since. Daria managed to completely isolate herself, even more than usual, which she wasn't quite sure was actually possible. But she supposed anything was possible after the previous night.   
Jane had shown up at her locker in between classes, her face etched with a mixture of concern and confusion, red lips twisted to one side. She asked all the usual questions...where had Daria been? What was going on? What was up with not walking to school together that morning?  
And then, like a bout of food poisoning, everything that had been haunting her since the previous night erupted forth, and she found herself sputtering a confession.   
"I kissed your boyfriend."  
Jane's blue eyes went wide and round in silent horror.  
"What?"  
"I kissed your boyfriend." Daria's insides twisted and turned as Jane's expression turned to one of anger. "I kissed Tom. I didn't mean to."  
And with that, Jane bolted down the hall, shoes slapping the floor as students made their ways back and forth, for the most part completely oblivious, as they usually were.   
"I'm Sorry!" She called after her best friend. "I'm sorry!"  
And that was it.  
There she stood. Miserable.  
"A real misery chick." She muttered to herself.

She knew things were as awful as they could possibly get when she found herself at her mother's office that afternoon, standing awkwardly in the doorway.  
Her mother was obviously shocked to see her, her jaw slack and her eyes taking on that same look she had seen in Jane's eyes earlier that day...but she didn't run. Not that she had anywhere to run too, really. Instead, she ushered her daughter into the car and drove quickly to a local restaurant, shrieking in a panicked tone the whole time.   
"What is it, Daria? What happened? Did someone get shot? Did those squirrels get to your father?? Is it the plague?"  
"What? No." Daria had said, leaning against the passenger side window. "It's ...I..." She couldn't imagine ever admitting this to her mother, but desperate times called for...desperation.  
"I kissed Jane's boyfriend."  
Helen turned to her daughter.   
"You what?"  
"I kissed my best friend's boyfriend. I am seriously, seriously screwed."

And that's how it felt, for the rest of the afternoon. Her mother's brutal honesty (`Life sucks') had been very little help.  
Daria was on her own.  
And on her own she stayed, seated on the sofa, taking in an episode of `Sick, Sad World', watching a mother of 3 duct tape 15 cats to her body and waddle into a swimming pool.  
"Wow." She muttered. "That's a hell of a lifetime achievement."   
The cats screamed and thrashed about in horror as they paddled their way to the surface of the water, the woman beaming with pride over her completely useless `talent'.   
"I'm just glad they ain't tigers!" She joked stupidly. "A tiger can kill a lady, y'know."  
"The lady or the tiger." Mumbled Daria to herself. "How true that is."  
She couldn't believe how this whole ordeal had started. Jane had had that stupid idea to dye her hair with some kind of ridculous wildlife motif.  
After a while of deciding on blondes, she had managed to talk Daria into dying stripes into her hair.  
She'd protested...hair dying wasn't exactly her forte, but somehow she'd managed to get lassoed into that mess.  
A horrible, blonde-and-black-striped mess.  
Jane was convinced that she had sabotaged her hair on purpose. Surely Tom would have no interest in a girl with a crappy dye job...but then again, it wasn't exactly like he was one of those people sexually attracted to cats that frequently appeared on `Sick, Sad World' in the first place.  
"Lady or the tiger." Daria said again with a sigh. "Screw `em both."  
She watched the segment dissolve into one about a man who found a poisonous bug living inside a foam cheese hat he'd gotten on vacation while in Wisconsin, but it hardly kept her attention. She rose to her feet and headed towards the kitchen, opening the refrigerator to find squirrel bait and one of Quinn's home made lipgloss disasters. It wasn't like she was particularly hungry, anyway, but the bowl of pink sludge brought to mind the familiar roughness of Tom's chapped lips on hers. She shook her head violently to eliminate the thought, and tried and tried again.  
"Dammit!" She cried, slamming the door shut and cupping her head in her hand in frustration. "Dammit, dammit dammit."  
And then the doorbell rang.  
She made her way to the door.  
`Dammit Tom!' She thought to herself, opening the door. `Leave me alone and stop ruining my-`  
"Hey."  
It was Jane.

 

 

 


End file.
